Chapter 66 It’s Good to Raise a Girl
Baoya looked down at the small pink thing in the palm of her hand. It was irregular in shape and felt soft.
She looked at it for a while but couldn't recognize what it was.
"Ear Mouse, what is this thing you gave me?" Baoya raised her head and wanted to ask about this strange beast that only existed in "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
But when she looked up, everything around her was pitch black, and the eared mouse with long chestnut-brown fur was gone.
"Strange, where did it go?" Xiao Baoya looked around, but there was nothing but darkness.
She was a little anxious. The ear mouse was gone. What was this thing given to her? And it was so dark here, how could she get out?
Baoya woke up in a hurry.
She opened her eyes and looked around. It was bright outside and she was lying on the warm kang in their east room.
Baoya sat up, raised her little hand to rub her eyes, and suddenly felt as if she was holding something soft in her palm.
She opened her palm and saw that the little pink thing that the ear mouse had given her in her dream was lying there quietly.
Baoya felt very strange, but since it was given by the ear mouse in her dream, she didn't throw it away. She put on her clothes and casually put the little pink piece into her pocket.
As soon as she left the east wing, He Chunxiu came over to call her to eat.
Baoya was led by her to sit at the small table in the main hall. Yun Chenglu, Yunhua and Yunyue were already there.
Seeing Baoya, Yunyue was quite surprised: "Huh? Baoya, you are the last one to get up today?"
In the past, Baoya was always the first one to wake up among the four children. I don’t know if it was because she was tired from playing in the mountains yesterday, or because of that strange dream.
Baoya pulled at her curled hair, feeling a little embarrassed: "Have you been up for a long time?"
"Not very long," Yunhua replied, "and breakfast is just in time anyway. You got up at the perfect time, so it's just right for you."
Baoya smiled, and the four children gathered around the table to eat breakfast.
Not long after breakfast, Xiaodouzi came to pick up the goods as usual. Yun Chenglu went to the fields to dig sweet potatoes with his father and uncles today. Baoya followed Yunhua and Yunyue to watch Zhao Zhilan and the two aunts load Xiaodouzi's goods into the truck.
Because He Chunxiu has poor legs and feet, she doesn't have to do such strenuous work. She just needs to wash the dishes and clear the table.
But this time, the Chen family next door was quiet. The front door was closed and there was no one in sight.
After Xiao Douzi paid Zhao Zhilan, he took out a bag of food and handed it to Baoya as usual: "This time it's honey-fried cherries, just like before!"
"Okay, Brother Douzi, thank you for your hard work!" Baoya took the heavy paper bag, her crescent-shaped eyes as clear as spring water.
Xiaodouzi liked it very much. He touched her little head, said hello to Zhao Zhilan, and drove away in the horse-drawn carriage.
Seeing him walking away, Zhao Zhilan slapped her thigh and remembered the tiger bones that Xiao Baoya and the others brought back last night.
"Hey, I have to go to Hunter Yang's house. I just asked him to help us hunt tigers yesterday."
Little Baoya blinked: "Grandma, are you going to tell him that we've got the tiger bones?"
"Yes," Zhao Zhilan said, "Hunter Yang is kind-hearted. It's almost winter now, and it's freezing cold. How can he go hunting tigers? But he couldn't resist my pleading, so he agreed. If it were someone else, he might not agree."
Since there was nothing else to do, Baoya took Zhao Zhilan's hand and shook it: "Then I'll go with grandma?"
"Okay." Zhao Zhilan agreed immediately. Hunter Yang's home was at the foot of Tiger Tooth Mountain in the south of the village, not very far away, so she could just take Baoya there for a trip.
"Grandma, we want to go too!" Yunhua and Yunyue also raised their little hands and shouted.
Zhao Zhilan laughed out loud: "Let's go, let's go together!"
So the four generations of grandparents and grandchildren held hands and went to Hunter Yang's house together.
The four of them were walking down the street, attracting the attention of many old ladies and young ladies who were chatting outside.
Zhao Zhilan was holding Yunhua's hand, Yunhua was holding Yunyue's hand, and Yunyue was holding Baoya's hand. The four of them were lined up in order of height, neatly arranged.
Wang Yuqin was hanging quilts outside when she turned around and asked, "Hey, old lady, are you taking the kids for a walk?"
"Let's go to Hunter Yang's house." Zhao Zhilan said.
"Oh," Wang Yuqin looked at the third little girl and nodded repeatedly, "Hiss, you said that the Yun family has raised three little girls in a row, which seems to be quite good. They are all clean and pretty when they are brought out. It's so pleasing to look at them."
Li Xiang'er, who came to chat with her nearby, rolled her eyes and said, "You only think it's a good idea now. But don't raising girls need food? Raising three girls in a row, how much food would it take!"
Wang Yuqin was silent. This was true. She had one son and two daughters. The eldest son did more and more work efficiently, while the two daughters were less capable.
Zhao Zhilan led Baoya and the other three to the residence of the hunter Yang. The door to the small courtyard surrounded by a wooden fence was open. She stood outside and shouted, but no one answered. Instead, she heard cries of pain coming from inside the house.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Zhao Zhilan walked in with her three children. The door of the small house opened, and a dark and thin boy came out.
The timid boy, who looked about three years old, pried against the door and called out softly, "Grandma Zhao."
"Hey," Zhao Zhilan hurried over and touched the boy's head. "Huzi, where's your dad? I heard some noise in the house."
"Dad went hunting," Hu Zi looked up at her, and suddenly his lips curled up, about to cry, "Grandma Zhao, come and see my mother. She seems to be dying..."
Zhao Zhilan's face changed. No wonder she heard someone screaming in pain in the house just now. It turned out that something happened to Yang the Hunter's wife.
Hu Zi turned around like a catfish and slipped into the house first. Zhao Zhilan pushed the door open and went in, followed by Bao Ya and the other three.
Hunter Yang lives in a wooden house, and he cut the wood himself in the mountains. Although the house is not big, it is strong enough to withstand cold and heat.
As soon as Zhao Zhilan entered, she saw a pale young woman lying on the wooden bed in the inner room.
The woman's hair was disheveled and her forehead was covered in sweat. She was biting her lips tightly, holding her stomach, and shouting, "Ouch, ouch."
"Dongmei, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Zhilan was frightened by her appearance.
Wu Dongmei was from the neighboring Heishui Village. At the age of fourteen, she was sold by her family to a twenty-eight-year-old bachelor, Yang the Hunter, for five taels of silver.
Hunter Yang is an outsider who does not have his own land in Feishui Village. He lives off the land and relies on his own skills to hunt wild animals and sell them in exchange for food to make a living.
Later, he saved some money, but the villagers disliked him because he had no house or land, and no one was willing to marry their daughter to him. He really couldn't find a wife, so he bought one from the neighboring Heishui Village.
However, he is a simple and honest person, and treats his wife well. The two of them now have a son. If it weren't for the severe famine in recent years, when there were no wild animals to hunt on Tiger Tooth Mountain, the life of this family of three would actually be pretty good.
"Auntie..." Wu Dongmei lay on the bed covered with a quilt, grimacing in pain. "I don't know what's wrong with me. It's been several days. Big Brother Yang just went out to find a doctor for me. Ouch..."
Zhao Zhilan's eyes fell on Wu Dongmei's tightly covered belly, and she realized that her belly was actually slightly bulging. She asked in surprise, "Are you pregnant again?"
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